Lens-Artists Challenge #115 – Inspiration
This week for Lens-Artists Challenge, Tina invited us to explore the theme of Inspiration. I could name many aspects around are my inspiration. I finally decided on three for this post.
Gardening is my hobby and my joy. My life is enriched by the inspiration from gardening. There are several basic things for a healthy garden. 1) Good soil. I started a butterfly garden and vegetable garden this year. Several sections have heavy clay soil. I dug at least one foot, soaked the soil and drained, mixed in several inches of organic soil. Use the correct amount of fertilizer periodically. 2) Watering. Test the daily watering to ensure the soil is moist, not just wet on the surface. 3) Proper planting space. The full-grown milkweed will be several feet in diameter in the butterfly garden, whereas the Zinnias are several feet tall but several inches wide. 4) Trimming the withered limbs according to different plants by season or regularly.
Learning from gardening, I need to continuously cleanse, nourish, and make changes to my mind, my heart, and my action to be a healthy person.


Traveling gave me the opportunity to see the wonderful nature near and far. We were at awe with the vast Denali wildness in Alaska, over 10,000 hydrothermal features such as geysers, hot springs, mud pots, travertine terraces, and fumaroles in Yellowstone, and four active volcanos in Hawaii, to name just a few.
Nature comes in all shapes and forms, all kinds of temperature, and different colors as reflected in our human life.



The maternal instinct in the animal kingdom was my inspiration and touches my heart at the deep spot. Humpback whales migrate farther than any other mammal on earth. They can travel around 3,000 miles between their breeding and feeding grounds regularly. During the migration with the newborn, the female Humpback would lift the calf above the water for it to breathe. The female and the calf are caressing each other constantly for affection.
A nest in my front porch was a cradle for four births of baby Mourning doves. The dove eggs are smaller than chicken eggs. I observed the female doves lay two eggs at a time. It takes about 35 days after hatching for the baby doves to fly. Last year, one baby was ready to fly and left the nest. The female dove left for a while but came back in the evening to stay with the second baby, kept him warm until he was ready to fly. The bigger baby also came to keep the little brother company. Then they flew away together.


Even though I was not able to be a stay-home mom when my daughter was a baby, I’m now a big fan of stay-home moms for them to treasure and enjoy those precious moments.



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LENS-ARTISTS CHALLENGE #115 – INSPIRATION
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This is so beautiful Miriam. I went to this one first! Love your beautiful Zinnia. The bee is enjoying your garden! So glad you had good success with the zinnias. Mine are about gone, but I have a couple that are eight feet tall!
Your granddaughter is precious!
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Mine came to four feet tall because I planted them in mid summer. I’ll start them early next year.
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The bottom half of my Zinnias are dried up, but it keeps putting out new blooms, so I let it grow on and on!
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Mine kept growing but the flowers started to get smaller and hardly open up so I cut them down to take care of the soil.
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I think the different climate may make a difference,
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I think so. If I planted them early next year, the blooms will last longer.
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3 and climbing walls!? So brave!
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What a lovely post, Miriam! I love your garden photos and the photos of your daughter and granddaughters. I find inspiration in nature and family too. ❤ xo
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Beautiful post, Miriam. I’m a fan of gardening too, as well as the inspiring wonder of nature. Though, I have to admit that your photos of your daughter and granddaughters are precious. And that rock wall. What fun. Autumn is amazing!
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Good morning, Diana. Yes, nature refreshes my mind every day. My daughter and granddaughters make me smile.
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Hi Miriam. This is a wonderful post and has brightened up my thoughts and day. Your photos are stunning as usual. I think the Mourning doves will continue to come and visit you and raise more babies on your porch, They would have picked up on your caring, maternal instincts. The humpback whale mom sounds like the best ‘stay-at-home’ mom of them all. x
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Thank you for your comment, Kim. Yes, I feel like I’m the mom of the mourning doves and the hummingbirds. I look out the window every morning to make the hummingbirds are there. Even my husband reminds me when the feeder needs a refill. 🙂
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Wonderful wonderful! LOVE the rock climber! Well done.
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Thank you, John. Autumn is quite a climber of rocks and jungle gym and hiker also!
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Ha ha! Excellent!
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I enjoyed reading of your inspiration and of course the photos. I loved the story of the mourning doves. It went well with daughter and granddaughters.
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Thank you, Liz. Almost everything inspires me. Yeah, I’ve been feeding the doves and other birds for six years. In the first few years, I saw the same pair came back. Apparently, someone tagged a ring around the leg of one dove and I recognized it. The photos of my daughter and granddaughters make me smile every day.
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Miriam, these are all so stunning—and heartwarming.
I especially loved the photos of the doves, and the story that went with them. Thank you for sharing!
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Thank you, Mae! Usually, both male and female doves share incubating, and then nurturing the newborn doves. This year I got a pair of unusual doves. Probably the male dove didn’t come back after one egg was hatched. The female dove gave up and then the second egg and the first baby disappeared. I was sad for a couple of days.
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Beautiful… ❤
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Thanks, Bette.💖
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Beautiful post Miriam. Love the way you tied the aspects of nature in with our own human nature. Absolutely loved your closing image with the baby (I assume Nora) reaching out for mom. Priceless!!
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Yes, Tina, nature has a way to touch me in many ways. Nora is so cute to interact with my daughter and Autumn!
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Such iconic pictures, Miriam–the exploding geyser, the path of a glacier, nesting birds. Gorgeous!
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Thank you, Jacqui. I wish to travel again next year. I have several places lined up! Maybe Italy first.
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I swore I would travel once I stopped working so many hours. I’m not doing it but maybe I can do a virtual travel through your escapades!
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Haha, virtual travel works. We started traveling when I went into administration in 1997. I had 22 vacation days, 10 sick leave days, and 10 holiday a year. So we did international once a year, a couple domestic trips. We kept up the schedule loosely after I retired. More of my husband’s siblings are retiring, we may go on family vacation.
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Wonderful photos, especially of the little ones.
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They fill my heart, VJ. Thank you for your comment.
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Nothing quite like them, I know. You are welcome.
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They make me smile every day!
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Such lovely photos Miriam. Does Autumn climb without a harness?
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Yes, Peter. Her dad was standing below and coaching her. She started real young climbing 3 or 4 feet at the children’s museum. 😊
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She looks very confident indeed!
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She loves to climb on all kinds of climbing features in the playground and got lots of practice. She has strong grips. I used to climb with her for protection but just watched her now when she does better!
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Very beautiful and such a lovely post, Miriam. The pictures are perfect.👍👍👍👍
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Thank you so much for reading and your comment, Kamal. I hope you’re doing well. 🤗
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You are always welcome dear Miriam. Yes all is good. I am not seeing you at my blog from a long time. Hope all is well with you.❤️❤️❤️❤️
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Such a beautiful post, Miriam. I’ve always loved doves, so I enjoyed reading about the nest on your porch. Your granddaughter is so adorable. Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you, Jill. I have about two dozen doves come to the feeding every day.
The dove this year broke my heart. After she laid two eggs, one egg was hatched. I think the partner didn’t come back to take turn nurturing the baby. She left for hours and came back for a while. Left again, then unhatched egg was missing. I felt sorry for the new baby. Next day the baby was gone. There was no trace of them.
I’m going to see my granddaughters again in a couple weeks. I postponed the trip because of the fires on the west coast.
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❤ I'm happy to hear you'll be visiting your granddaughters again, Miriam.
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Yeah, I’m looking forward to our trip, Jill. ❤
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A lovely post, Miriam. I know you love gardening and you are good at it. The picture of Nora and Mercy is delightful.
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Yes, Robbie, Nora likes to look at my daughter and likes to look at Autumn also. She is really cute.
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She is gorgeous ❤️
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My husband is going with me on the next trip to see Autumn and Nora. 💖
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I can think of nothing more inspiring than a grandchild. Well done, Miriam!
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I can’t agree more about what you said, Pete! I keep myself healthy so I can go see them.
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I liked the photos of the doves.
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There were cute and I watched them every day. I’m glad you liked them, Frank!
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Your grand daughter is big now!
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Yes, Autumn is really big. Maybe I’ll add one more neat photo of her climbing rocks!
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Oh wow!!! That would be great!
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It’s at an indoor gym!
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I did it!
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Will pop by later
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